v0.1.0 · free · open source · Windows 10 & 11
Change the text already on the page, redact what shouldn't be there, sign and fill forms. Quintess is an open-source PDF reader and editor for Windows 10 and 11. Your documents stay on your computer, and there is no account or subscription.
Quintess-0.1.0-setup.exe · installs per user, no admin rights
Version 0.1.0 for Windows 10/11, 64-bit. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows may show a SmartScreen warning. Read the installation notes.
Supply Agreement
This agreement covers the delivery of 480 units of archival paper stock to the Buyer each quarter. The quarterly fee is $4,200, payable within thirty days of each delivery, and includes freight to the Buyer's main warehouse.
Either party may end this agreement with sixty days' written notice. Payments go to account 0042‑7781‑5530 unless the Supplier names another in writing.
edit text
Click a line or a paragraph and type. Paragraphs re-wrap at their own width and alignment, bold and italic carry through, and new letters use the document's own font when it has them, or a close substitute when it doesn't. A preview marks every line that will move before you apply.
How to edit PDF text →redaction
Text, pictures and shapes under a box are taken out of the file. Quintess then looks for the removed text elsewhere in the file and reports what it found and anything it couldn't check.
command palette
every script
Hindi and other Indic scripts are shaped properly, and Arabic and Hebrew run right to left.
signatures
Changes after signing are saved on top of the signed revision, which stays intact and checkable; PDF readers show that later changes were made. Redaction rewrites the file and ends existing signatures, and Quintess warns before it does.
automation
Record page, stamp, redaction, cleanup and conversion steps as an action, run it over a stack of files, or point it at a folder and let new PDFs flow through. Text edits and comments aren't recorded.
command line
QR codes
Quintess shows the real destination and warns about suspicious-looking addresses. Nothing opens until you choose to.
and the rest
| Item | Quintess | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | No trial, no paid tier, no ads |
| Account | Not required | Install it and open a file |
| Your documents | Processed on your computer | Editing, OCR, signing and redaction never upload anything |
| License | MIT or Apache-2.0 | Read, change and share the source |
| Platform | Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit | Installs per user, no admin rights |
| Command line | 53 commands | Script the same work the app does |
Quintess is built and maintained by William Hanright. Version 0.1.0 is the first public release, so try it on copies of important documents first. The source, release notes and issue tracker are all on GitHub.
Rendering by PDFium, the engine inside Chrome. Editing, redaction, signatures and shaping are Quintess's own Rust code, built on about 400 open-source libraries.
Yes. Quintess is open source under MIT or Apache-2.0. There is no paid tier, no trial and no ads.
For many people, yes: it edits text, redacts, fills and creates forms, signs, runs OCR and much more. It doesn't promise every Acrobat feature or identical results, so try it on copies of your documents and check the results before you switch.
Yes, for now. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns about it. Download it only from the Quintess release page on GitHub, then compare its SHA-256 with the checksum published beside it (in PowerShell: Get-FileHash .\Quintess-*-setup.exe). A match shows the file is exactly the one released. If you decide to go ahead, choose More info, then Run anyway.
Not yet. Quintess is built and tested for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit). The engine is portable Rust, so other systems are possible later.
Quintess edits the text a PDF contains, a line or a paragraph at a time, and re-wraps paragraphs. It keeps the document's fonts when they have the letters you type and substitutes a close match when they don't. Scanned pages are pictures: OCR makes them searchable and lets you select and copy the text, but the page itself stays an image. Text drawn as outlines can't be edited as text.
On first launch, Quintess asks whether to check GitHub for new versions. If you say yes, it checks at most once a day and asks before downloading anything. You can also check by hand from the Help menu.
No. It installs for your user account only. It can offer itself for opening PDFs without taking over your current default.
Unsigned installer: Windows may show a SmartScreen warning. Compare the SHA-256 above with the file you downloaded, then see the installation notes.
